Towards Unlearning Colonialism in Development Research and Practice, ‘Decolonial Chats’ Workshop Series
This report reflects on the 'Decolonial chats' workshop series 'Towards unlearning colonialism in Development Research and Practice' which was hosted online by Northumbria University's Centre for Global Development in 2021. The series of four workshops interrogated how coloniality, understood here as referring to “long-standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of colonialism, but that define culture, labour, intersubjective relations, and knowledge production well beyond the strict limits of colonial administrations” (Maldonado – Torres 2007: 243), is embedded within development research and practice and how global development can be a driver of contemporary global, racialised inequalities.
The series was supported by the UK Development Studies Association (DSA) and included workshops in English, Spanish and Portuguese. It was aimed at students, early-career researchers (ECRs) and development practitioners, recognising the fluid intersections that exist between development research and practice. The workshops have brought a decolonial approach to development into conversation with concerns about contemporary work, speaking to the challenges of approaching development studies through a decolonial lens as an increasingly precarious (and for some of us racialised) workforce within the neoliberal university. These trends are not restricted to the UK but are a feature of higher education and development practice more globally. All information and recordings of the workshops can be accessed on the project's website.
This report - available in English, Portuguese and Spanish - opens with a brief overview of the series, including our objectives and workshop details. It then goes on to discuss four key interconnected themes that arose from across the workshop series; firstly, the complex geographies of decolonisation, secondly the importance of language in the decolonial context, thirdly the importance of an ethics of care in response to ongoing coloniality, and finally the (im)possibilities of system change. The report concludes with final reflections about organising and participating in the workshop series.
